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McLennan County agrees to contract with private company for new jail
A split McLennan County commissioners court voted Wednesday to renew its contract with Community Education Centers of New Jersey to operate the downtown McLennan County Detention Center and authorized CEC to finance, build and operate a new 871-bed jail adjacent to the one on State Highway 6.
With Commissioners Lester Gibson and Joe Mashek voting against the proposal, County Judge Jim Lewis and Commissioners Ray Meadows and Wendall Crunk voted during a budget work session Wednesday to allow the private company to build the new jail at no cost to the taxpayers.
Commissioners recessed their regular Tuesday morning meeting instead of adjourning it, which allowed them to take action at Wednesday’s session.
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Comments
By taxpayer
August 13, 2008 4:50 PM | Link to this
Remember folks, nothing in this world is free…nothing! Your taxes will go up no matter what just like the cost of everything. You can’t tell me that some company will build a multi-million dollar facility for free….no they have to be paid somehow…..It’s just now our tax dollars will be headed to New Jersey thanks to the Three Amigos and in someones pockets!
By BlondeCop
August 13, 2008 7:45 PM | Link to this
Well, here we go. A privatized county jail. Just what the county needs. Money going out of the county instead of staying in. I work for one of the prisons and the state’s privatized jails are a joke. Lower wages, less benefits and you can bet this will happen to McLennan County Jail employees. Were any of the jail employees at the meeting where this was decided or was the recess just an excuse for them not to realize what was happening? I do not live in McLennan County any more and I’m real glad I don’t. I can only hope the county employees are treated as well as they are now (that’s a tongue in cheek!).
By AJ
August 13, 2008 8:03 PM | Link to this
This is absolutely incredible. Where is transparancy in government?
As I recall, at last week’s or the week before commissioners meeting didn’t them come across as saying the issue of building a new jail and how it would be financed was tabled for further study. What’s changed in a week or two? How could these elected representatives make this type of committment to CEC without public input?
Last, doesn’t the commissioners court need to post their agenda to indicate that they would be considering this issue renewing a multi-million dollar contract for the downtown jail and “authorizing” CEC to finance, building and operate a jail on Highway six nearly as large as the exisiting one? I find it hard to believe the Trib would have missed this as an agenda item. And I find it hard to believe that every off-duty jail officer would not have shown up at the meeting.
Perhaps like the Russians invading Georgia, Jim, Ray and Wendell think we’re not paying attention to what’s going during the the Olympics.
By Taco
August 13, 2008 8:17 PM | Link to this
Wendall is on his way out, Ray Meadows is a moron, and beloved Jim lewis needed some extra cash……county jailers are screwed!!! Just watch!!!Plus Lynch is off in la la land, he is a born loser….
By Grif
August 14, 2008 2:44 AM | Link to this
I am pretty sure this same thing happened in Falls county about 6 years ago. Yep sure did; with CiviGenics “CEC” and what has come of it? Taxes have gone up, jailers pay has gone down as well as their benefits. Private prisons are about making money and making money only. If there was not a large profit margin who would want to be involved. Fact is how ever much it cost the county to house an inmate for a day CEC will charge the county twice that to house the same inmate. I figure MCDC at full population brings in around $5,000. a day so with three times as many being held at the new jail tax payers can look forward to footing that bill of $15,000, wow that’s 5.5 million a year. Would it not make more sense for the county to build this themselves. Never mind then lynch would not get his $12,000 a year bonus.
By Fred
August 14, 2008 5:13 AM | Link to this
Greed. The fall of Jim Lewis and Lynch is another fall of man.
By JD
August 14, 2008 6:39 PM | Link to this
I can’t believe the audacity of the Commssioners,County Judge and the Sheriff to vote on the jail issue while they were supposed to be in a work session.Nobody was there because they agreed on Tuesday to have an expert from the Texas Jail commission come in and assess their needs for addtional jail space and there wasn’t anything scheduled in Tuesday’s agenda in regards to voting on the issue.Wendell “Crook” Crunk saw the nearly empty court room as an opportunity to make a motion to accept CEC’s bid,as there were no reporters,tv stations or jailers there that he would have to face.Sheriff Lynch wasted no time in giving his $91,000 nod of approval to the commissioners and the deal was sealed with a 2-2 split vote,with Jim Lewis splitting the tie and voting for CEC.I guess honesty and integrity do not exist in Mclennan County,as they all seem too consumed with the “All Mighty Dollar.” I can remember just a year ago when the commissioners used this same tactic to vote themselves in a nearly 12% pay raise.